GRAY-HEADED JUNCO 1103 



to three feet of snow. But dui'ing severe late snowstorms, which 

 may occur as late as the last week in j\fay, large numbers often 

 reappear in the lower foothills or at the edge of the plains, wherever 

 brush patches and bare ground offer food. At such times they seldom 

 sing. The latest caniceps record on the Colorado plains is a female 

 Niedrach and Rockwell (1939) report "taken in Denver, June 17, 

 1918." Joe T. Marshall (MS.) observed seven or eight caniceps in 

 the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona Apr. 5, 1951, in a 

 "very tame" flock with six or seven Mexican juncos, a J. o. mearnsi, 

 and a J. o. thurberi. A month later, May 4, he saw a caniceps with 

 Mexican juncos at a picnic table in the same locahty. This is approxi- 

 mately 250 miles south of the breeding range of caniceps. In south- 

 eastern Arizona Seymour hevj (in Phillips, Marshall, and Monson, 

 1964) saAV caniceps "to May 24 (1957 in Santa Rita Mountains * * *)" 

 and there are exceptional dates of Jime 5 at Fort Huachuca and June 6 

 in Guadalupe Canyon, all some 250 to 300 miles south of the breeding 

 range of caniceps. 



The southern race, dorsalis, shows less seasonal movement than 

 caniceps, and often winters -with flocks of caniceps and Oregons in the 

 pines and adjacent brushy places at or near its summer home. In 

 March dorsalis individuals leave the mLxed flocks and take up their 

 summer territories while the higher country is still snow-covered. 

 Edouard Jacot (MS.) \mtes that caniceps in the White Mountains 

 of Ai'izona is "not as solitary as Red-backed [dorsalis], which is often 

 seen alone in the timber." At Granville, Aiiz., at the lower edge of 

 the Transition Zone, he recorded the last dorsalis Apr. 19, 1935, in the 

 "deciduous white oaks" (Q. gambeUi), where Mdntering or migrating 

 caniceps remained as late as May 7. On Feb. 13, 1937 Lyndon 

 Hargrave (MS.) \\Tote of dorsalis at Flagstaff, Ariz., well within the 

 pines of the Transition Zone: "Probably all my banded winter birds 

 left last night. Abundant 12th." Allan R. PhiUips recorded the "close 

 of migration" there the previous year on April 23, after which date 

 only one pair remained of the six or eight birds previously recorded 

 daily in the vicinity. 



Territory. — While the caniceps probably all leave their breeding 

 territories for the winter, apparently many dorsalis that breed in tlie 

 ponderosa pine forest remain throughout the year in the vicinity of 

 the breeding grounds. Hargrave (1936) reported banding an adult 

 male on its breeding territory in Flagstaff Jan. 30, 1935, which he 

 retrapped several times from May 8 to September 3, and again Novem- 

 ber 8 and the following February 14 (MS.). Apparently it remained 

 in the general vicinity the entire year. Its mate, however, was 

 observed or trapped only from March 24 to September 3, and probably 

 wintered elsewhere. 



646-737 — G8 — pt. 2 33 



